The Top 15 Middle Market Investment Banks in 2023
Review our top 15 list of the best-performing middle market investment banks in 2023.
Middle Market Investment Banks: Every Deal Counts
Not all banks, and certainly not all bankers get to work on the multi-billion dollar deals dominated by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, and the other bulge bracket banks.
That said, there are still several different middle market investments that service the “smaller” firms that make up a third of the U.S. economy. There is a messy gray area when it comes to classifying a “middle market” bank, but the general consensus seems to align with the following considerations.
Middle Market Banking Classification Rules:
- Customer Size: Service companies with annual revenue between $10 million and $1 billion, an employee count between 100 and 2,000, and a market cap between $10 million and $500 million.
- Bank Size: Smaller than bulge bracket banks (Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, etc.) but larger than regional boutique banks.
- Locations: Weaker international presence, but decent geographic diversification in its home country (multiple offices in multiple regions).
- Required Services: Mergers and acquisitions advisory, equity fundraising, debt fundraising.
- Optional Services: Restructuring, sales and trading, equity research.
The Top Middle Market Investment Banks List
The list below summarizes the top 15 middle market investment banks in 2023.
- Baird
- TD Cowen
- Houlihan Lokey
- Lincoln International
- Oppenheimer
- Solomon Partners
- Raymond James
- William Blair
- Wedbush
- Harris Williams
- JMP
- Macquarie
- Jefferies
- HSBC
- RBC
Baird
Baird is a multinational middle-market boutique investment bank based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm is competitive within the middle market transactions space and is most well known for its work with industrial companies.
- Notable Teams: Industrials Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Restructuring
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Industrial Physics (Acquisition), Allstar Services (Acquisition), Well Tower (Debt Capital Markets)
TD Cowen
TD Cowen is a full-service middle-market investment bank with operations in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. The firm is regarded as a solid middle-market bank best known for its capital markets teams.
- Notable Teams: Healthcare Equity Capital Markets, Technology Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: BioCryst (Debt Financing), Torl BioTherapeutics (Equity Financing), Dragonfly (Acquisition)
Houlihan Lokey
Houlihan Lokey is an American multinational middle-market investment bank based in Los Angeles, California. The firm is best known for its world-class financial restructuring practice and industrials advisory group.
- Notable Teams: Debt Restructuring, Industrials Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Restructuring, Valuation
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Hershey (Acquisition), China Fishery (Restructuring), Kestrel Coal (Refinance)
Lincoln International
Lincoln International is a global middle market investment bank known for taking on relatively smaller deals but with very high deal volume. Of the many deals that Lincoln International takes on, the firm tends to highlight its high participation in sell-side acquisition advisory.
- Notable Teams: Technology Media & Telecom Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Private Fund Advisory, Valuations
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Questx (Acquisition Sale), Blue Sea Capital (Acquisition), Trakstar (Acquisition Sale)
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is a full-service middle-market investment bank that predominantly serves emerging growth and mid-sized businesses. The firm has a traditionally strong healthcare advisory team with a very active equity capital markets operation.
- Notable Teams: Healthcare Advisory, Technology Advisory, Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Debt Advisory & Restructuring, Fund Advisory
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Shoals (Equity Capital Markets), EZ Corp (Debt Capital Markets), Astria (Equity Capital Markets)
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Solomon Partners
Solomon Partners, sometimes referred to as PJ Solomon, is a full-service middle-market investment bank that covers a wide variety of industry sectors and financial services. The firm is a solid bank that seems to land several large $1 billion+ deals a year.
- Notable Teams: Consumer & Retail Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, SPACs, Activist Defense, Restructuring
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Vince (Acquisition Sale), Prime Therapeutics (Acquisition), Imperfect Foods (Acquisition Sale)
Raymond James
Raymond James is a full-service middle-market investment bank based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm has a very competitive middle market technology coverage group with strong deal flow and an average transaction size greater than most other groups within the bank.
- Notable Teams: Technology Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Restructuring, Private Capital Advisory
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: InflaRx (Equity Capital Markets), Bumble (Equity Capital Markets), CBank (Acquisition)
William Blair
William Blair is a multinational middle-market boutique investment bank based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm tends to place in the upper middle market zone with strong deals across a number of different industry coverage groups.
- Notable Teams: Technology Advisory, Healthcare Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Private Capital Advisory
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Agilon Health (Equity Capital Markets), Lazer (Acquisition), Tessco (Acquisition)
Wedbush
Wedbush is a small full-service middle market investment bank well known for its equity research teams. The firm is pushing to grow many of its coverage groups as it has performed a strong number of equity and debt capital markets deals.
- Notable Teams: Healthcare Advisory, Technology Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Restructuring, Valuations
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Alight (Equity Capital Markets), American Credit Acceptance (Debt Capital Markets), Disc Medicine (Acquisition Sale)
Harris Williams
Harris Williams is an American middle-market investment bank based in Richmond, Virginia. The firm is competitive within the middle market transactions space and is particularly known for landing broad sponsor sell-side deals.
- Notable Teams: Sell-Side Mergers & Acquisitions
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: West Star Aviation (Acquisition Sale), Buck (Acquisition Sale), Southwire (Acquisition)
JMP
JMP is an American middle-market investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm tends to work on smaller middle market transactions with strong volume in capital markets work.
- Notable Teams: Healthcare Advisory, Technology Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Restructuring, Valuations
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: FirstEnergy (Debt Capital Markets), Essential Properties (Equity Capital Markets), Live Nation Entertainment (Debt Capital Markets)
Macquarie
Macquarie Capital is an Australian middle-market investment banking group based in Sydney, Australia. The firm is best known for its advisory and investment services within the infrastructure development space.
- Notable Teams: Infrastructure Team
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Equity Research, Infrastructure & Energy Developments, Equities Brokerage
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Sydney Airport (Acquisition), PennDOT (Infrastructure Development)
Jefferies
Jefferies is one of the dominant players within the multinational middle market investment banking space. The firm is competitive amongst many major players by deal volume and holds very well-regarded leveraged finance and healthcare advisory teams.
- Notable Teams: Leveraged Finance, Healthcare Advisory, Energy Advisory, Industrials Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Debt Restructuring, Private Capital Advisory
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Mallinckrodt (Restructuring), NYC Bancorp (Acquisition), Varsity Brands (Credit Financing)
HSBC
HSBC, or Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, has a global banking & markets subsidiary that operates as an international full-service middle market investment bank. The firm is one of the largest players in the middle market space with particularly well-regarded operations in Asia and Europe.
- Notable Teams: Asia Banking & Markets
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Leveraged Finance, Sales & Trading, Investment Research, Securities Services
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Qatar Energy (Debt Capital Markets), UAE (Debt Capital Markets), Aramco Oil Pipelines (Acquisition)
RBC
RBC, or Royal Bank of Canada, is a multinational middle-market investment bank based in Toronto, Canada. The firm is competitive within the middle market transactions space but often competes for top-tier bulge bracket deals in its home country of Canada.
- Notable Teams: Mergers & Acquisitions, Leveraged Finance, Power & Utilities Advisory, Real Estate Advisory
- Offered Services: Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets Advisory, Leveraged Finance, Corporate Banking, Restructuring, Valuations
- Notable Recent Advisory Deals: Kraft Heinz (Acquisition Sale), Blackstone (Debt Capital Markets), FireBird (Acquisition Sale)
Additional Resources
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